THE DISTANT COUSIN
Although both porpoises and dolphins are in the family of whales, they’re more like distant cousins than close siblings. Porpoises tend to be short and stocky with blunt faces.
They also live in smaller pods of about two to four in comparison to dolphins’ pods, which
can be made up of dozens. Dolphins are long, sleek and have the rostrum or protruding
beak. Porpoises have spade-shaped teeth, and dolphins have conical teeth. Additionally,
porpoises have more triangular dorsal fins where dolphins’ dorsal fins have more of a curvature. While dolphins and porpoises seem to share a high level of intelligence, the latter
are rarely seen in Georgia.
Diana Reiss researches the minds and habits of dolphins to facilitate global protection for the animals.
themselves in mirrors—intelligence that
has only been demonstrated elsewhere by
humans, great apes, elephants and magpies.
Beyond protecting an intelligent, sensitive
animal, learning more about dolphins results
in another important benefit. Much like the
canary in the coal mine, the species can be
an early indicator for many environmental changes and dangers that will ultimately
affect humans.
“As goes their health, so goes the health
of the ecosystem they rely on,” Racanelli
explains. “It’s been said that we are all downstream from someone else. Because they
live their lives at sea level, dolphins are
downstream from all of us, which means
whatever we send them from our terrestrial
world … has nowhere else to go.” Fortunately,
researchers like Reiss are keeping a close eye
on these crucial cetaceans.
Aquatic Neighbors
Due to its islands, marshes, estuaries, rivers and creeks, Georgia boasts 3,400 miles of
tidal shoreline. Such an abundance provides
the perfect setting for the bottlenose dolphin.
Reiss studies dolphins that live in aquariums for their accessibility and the opportunity
to perform longitudinal experiments, but she
notes that the waters off of Georgia are of
particular interest because of the mix of resident and migratory dolphins. “I’m a research
scientist but I’ve also been involved in rescue,
so I’m really enchanted with Sea Island and
the whole environment,” she explains. “I’d
love to get some research going there.”
In addition to these ideal conditions,
Gray’s Reef, about 20 miles east of Georgia’s
coast, is a marine protected area—one of 14
in the National Marine Sanctuary System.
“My friend, noted marine biologist Dr.
Sylvia Earle, calls marine protected areas
‘hope spots,’ places where there’s great
potential to maintain healthy, thriving ecosystems,” Racanelli explains, adding that
Gray’s Reef is an incredibly important habitat that houses hundreds of species of fish,
invertebrates and mammals like dolphins
and manatees. “We need these special
places on Earth as much as we need cathedrals and national monuments. They give
us hope for the future.”
Dolphins in their natural habitat are
often spotted by those along Georgia’s coast,
including Sea Island’s residents and visitors
who are out on the water or even taking a
stroll on the beach. The dolphins that can
be seen in shallower waters, including closer
to the coast and in estuaries, are identified
as inshore dolphins. Inshore or estuarine
dolphins have larger flippers, are 6 to 8 feet
long and are pale gray. Offshore dolphins can
grow up to 12 feet long and have small flippers. They’re dark, almost black, and migrate
from New Jersey down the entire Eastern
Seaboard, spending cool-weather months in
warmer Caribbean waters. Although dolphins
can swim 100 miles a day, estuarine or resident dolphins have a home range in which
they tend to stay.
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